VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Police Department has a forensic technician with a specialty some may not realize is one used in solving crimes.
Emily Baucom is an American Board of Forensic Entomology Certified Technician. Baucom, born and raised in Chesapeake, is the first employee of VBPD to hold such a title. According to the department, she’s one of only nine in the U.S. and Canada to hold this certification.
So, what does entomology have to do with crime investigations?
It’s essentially where a technician would collect insects on and around a body, and later analyze them to help find an approximate time of the person’s death.
"We have a very real part of our job that is dealing with the gross and the smelly," Baucom stated.
According to the American Board of Forensic Entomology, “Such certification would strengthen the credentials of individuals employed with crime laboratories or medical examiner offices and required to investigate scenes of human or veterinary forensic importance where insect evidence is potentially present.”
“All the smells, all the sensories, it’s overload sometimes,” Baucom admitted. But she also said the apparent creepiness of the study does not phase her most times.
“I guess I’ve gotten past that part of it,” she added.
Baucom graduated from Christopher Newport University and earned her Master’s in forensic science from George Mason University.
She talked about why she likes a career in forensics.
“I like feeling like I can take the crime scene and work backwards," said Baucom. "Kind of solve the puzzle of what happened, trying to find those clues and those moments, the evidence that’s going to assist in closing that case.”
Though she has a specialty in entomology and the recovery of buried and scattered remains, many times, she responds to crime scenes with other forensic technicians to photograph and collect material evidence, which they take back to the lab to process.
“In our office, it is mostly women. We have very few men in here,” Baucom said.
When asked if she has any advice for those who might be interested in the field, she replied, “Go for it! We’re always looking for more scientists.”
Baucom explained that she’s been working for the department for six years and got her entomology certification last summer. So far, she hasn’t had to use those specialty skills, but she said if she ever needed to, she would be honored to help solve a case.
“Certainly, a case where I get to show off my specialty and use that to bring closure to a family, to somebody who’s had a loss,” Baucom said.
